Agriculture Students Receive a Virtual Gift from Mountaire Farms to Assist with Hybrid Learning

To the left is a projection of a baby chicken on a projector screen and on the right are two students wearing masks looking at the projection

Under normal circumstances, Delaware Technical Community College agriculture students would typically visit Mountaire Farms facilities for four in-person tours to see the hatchery, processing plant, rendering plant, and feed mill. This provides students with the knowledge of just how much work goes into getting chicken into stores and onto the tables of customers.

But the continued challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic will prevent agriculture students from any in-person visits anytime soon. Instead of missing out on working with Delaware Tech, Mountaire Farms decided to create a virtual tour that showcases every area a student would have visited under normal circumstances.

"By watching the tours virtually, they can at least get a glimpse of what really happens in the hatchery, processing, rendering and feed mill since they won't be able see the process in person," said David Mancuso, poultry production management instructor.

While the virtual tour was born from the inability to have students at an actual Mountaire Farms facility, Mancuso said the virtual tour will live on even when students are allowed to visit the facility in the future.

"The video tour will be provided to the students in addition to the normal tours," he said. "This will be a good source of additional information for the students since some of the tours can be very loud and hearing the tour guide can be a bit of a challenge."

In addition to the tours, Mountaire Farms has been a valuable resource for Delaware Tech's agriculture program. Regularly, a representative from Mountaire's human resources department provides a presentation of employment opportunities, and students often have the ability to work for the company as an intern.

"Mountaire is a wonderful asset to Delaware Tech and has played a beneficial role in the education of our students," Mancuso said "The tours take plenty of time to plan and schedule, and getting the student through a tour during processing is no easy task. We hope to be able to continue this relationship with Mountaire for many more years."

Get more information on Delaware Tech's applied agriculture programs.

PHOTO: Agriculture students Ethan Watkinson and Kaelyn Parks watch part of a virtual tour recorded and provided by Mountaire Farms to help poultry science students who will be unable to actually tour the Mountaire Farms facility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.